UFC on FOX 7 Salaries: Benson Henderson, Frank Mir each earn $200,000

Last night is one UFC lightweight champ Benson Henderson will surely never forget. In addition to successfully defending his title against a game Gilbert Melendez, Henderson also proposed to his longtime girlfriend and exited the Octagon with a fiancée as a result. Were those two things not enough, “Bendo” also brought home a $200,000 paycheck due to his success in the scrap.

Henderson’s windfall was reported by the California State Athletic Commission along with the salaries attached to UFC on FOX 7. MMAJunkie was first to reveal the figures.

Though Henderson scored six figures he wasn’t alone in that regard, as Melendez landed a $175,000 payday. Likewise, Frank Mir made $200,000 for his losing effort to Daniel Cormier who earned $126,000 respectively.

None of the reported salaries include undisclosed bonuses or sponsorship money.

I don’t know all the details but Gil’s fat payday has to be a carryover from his SF deal… I’m assuming for the guys the UFC picked up from SF they will honor the remaining fights on the SF terms, and then will start over once it expires.

For a guy like Nate, he’s now headlined a FOX event and been part of the main FOX telecast on another. So he’s making big money from the sponsorship $$ that type of exposure attracts. But even still, a $15K payday from the UFC does seem really low… that was Nate’s 18th fight with the company. The UFC’s pay structure, or at least how they report things, is really wonky.

From what I’ve gathered from other reports and dropped comments and hints, Nate’s low payday is tied into taxes. He can report less on his taxes if he shows he didn’t make much. It’s also one of the reasons he has such bad credit and had a hell of a time buying a house. If the tax man ever catches up to him, he’s probably in deep shit but doing it this way lets him fly under the radar a bit easier. Pretty sure the UFC recommends this in their fighter summits.